Iran, Pakistan to stage joint naval drills

Tehran, April 19 (IANS) Iran and Pakistan will hold joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf waters later on Tuesday.

The drills will be held in cooperation with a Pakistani flotilla of warships that has been staying in Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas for the past four days, Xinhua quoted Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying.

Sayyari did not explain the dimensions of the military exercise but said it will be staged in the east of the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

Such exercises will strengthen military relations between the two countries, he said.

Two warships of the Pakistani navy docked at Iran’s Bandar Abbas on Saturday.

Pakistan’s embassy in Tehran has already described the visit as a sign of close and brotherly ties between the two nations with the message of regional peace and solidarity.